


Aren

by lordofnothing1



Category: Original Work
Genre: Fantasy, Gen, No Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-15
Updated: 2019-10-19
Packaged: 2020-12-16 23:54:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21044879
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lordofnothing1/pseuds/lordofnothing1
Summary: Thousands of years ago, the Five Gods created the Five Races: Elves, Giants, Dwarves, Ogres, and Merfolk. Then after a great battle between themselves and the Master God, they vanished. Now the Five Races have grown peaceful towards eachother but the Gods are with them now. And they are not happy. Caught in the middle is Rosa, Chief Warmaster of the Dwarves, whose job it is solely to train young warriors, and she must make choices that will affect Aren forever.





	1. The Chamber

Rosa looked up from her students at the messenger coming across the training ground.  
What now? she thought. A messenger was the last thing she needed today. Already three of her students had broken bones from how hard they were swinging practice axes, her brother Gerard had postponed helping her move once again, and her mother had suitors lined up for her when she reached home.   
Time and time again she had told her mother "No more suitors. I'm not interested in a relationship. Ever," and time and time again her mother had responded with "Dearie you just need to meet the right dwarf."  
The messenger marched up to them and stopped, breathing heavily. Rosa called a halt to the class while he caught his breath. He said,  
"Chief Warmaster! I come with a message from King Franklin!"  
"Speak," Rosa said, "and be quick about it!"  
"He requests your presence at once!"  
Thank the gods she thought, happy she would probably not have to go home today.  
***  
Rosa looked harrowed as she entered King Franklin's chamber. It had taken her a while to gather up all of her students and send them home, so she was a little later than she would have been.  
It was unfortunate her least favorite person, Kallek, was there. He was High Priest of Gruenir and an asshat.  
“Late as usual Rosa,” Kallek said.  
“Silence,” The king said. He shifted on his throne so that he lounged at a different angle. “Bring in the messenger!” he demanded. The dwarf guarding the door nodded and left, quickly returning with a bulky ogre. Rosa studied him curiously. Like most of his kind he had two curving horns and a good amount of firm muscle.  
“I bring tidings from Warlord Roggle!” the messenger said in a loud voice. “Builders of our new town have found a chamber where they were digging the sewage system. He has invoked the right to council over this.”  
The right to council hadn’t been invoked for nearly a decade. What was in that chamber? Gold? Jewels? Some new threat to the peaceful society they had built?  
Rosa leaned forward. “This new city was being built in the Deepwood was it not?” she asked calmly.  
“Yes it was,” the messenger responded with equal calmness. He clearly didn’t give a rat’s ass about the Deepwood, the city, or the chamber.  
“Well we have to go!” Kallek said in that particularly infuriating way of his.  
“No we do not!” the king, shockingly, said. “By right I may refuse to go to the council.”  
Rosa turned, shocked, to look at her king. He had willingly gone along with the council every other time it was called. Why had the man suddenly, almost mule-like, refused now? Rosa herself was a young dwarf, only a few years past her 20th birthday. She was not Chief Warmaster at the time the last council was called, in fact she was still being taught by the previous Warmaster, Jeraw.  
Jeraw had been an… interesting character to say the least. “Give me your all.” he had always said, and was good at giving his all. So much so she still had a scar from some of his private lessons with her. He was an old dwarf but surprisingly fast. Yes he was…  
Rosa became suddenly aware of Kallek near yelling at King Franklin. They had been arguing the whole time. She came to a decision and stood.  
“Enough!” she shouted cutting over the argument and stopping it. Everyone in the room looked at Rosa in surprise. “Kallek and I will go in your stead to the council. You, my liege, will stay. Is that fair?”  
Kallek and the king nodded, dumbstruck at Rosa’s display. She turned to look at the messenger.  
“How long until we leave?” she asked him.  
“Immediately, Chief Warmaster, or as close to immediate as I can manage. It’s three days to the edge of the Deepwood where the town is being constructed.”  
Rosa nodded. She figured it would be something of that nature.  
***  
Rosa startled awake in her carriage. She had been sleeping on and off for the past three hours. A book slid from her lap onto the floor as she sat up. Outside, the beginnings of the forest were finally visible. It had been a long three days, traveling with Kallek had not improved her mood. Luckily, Roggle, the warlord, had provided a spacious carriage.  
Speaking of Kallek, where was he? She could not see him, and the carriage didn’t have any extra rooms, unlike the truly massive elven carriages. Her question was soon answered as she could hear Kallek talking to the carriage driver. He had been doing that for the past three days, avoiding all sorts of awkward conversation with Rosa.  
As the carriage rolled into a clearing, Rosa could see three others, one for each other ruler. One, larger than the others, was clearly for the Minister of the Giants, a man named Arcer.  
There was one which the elven queen, Afya was currently stepping out of. She was known for her great beauty and her uncaring policies towards the other races living within the Deepwood.  
The final carriage was for the Merfolk Empresses, Weiss and Filla. They were married to each other. The carriage was almost nothing more than a formality with those two as they lived within walking distance of the town. They, among all the other leaders, had strived the most for peace between the races, both of them having lived hundreds of years to do it.  
The carriage halted next to the other three and Rosa opened the door and stepped out. She could see that the driver was rounding the carriage and was hit by the door. She looked at him with apology. Afya approached Kallek and greeted him with some level of familiarity, despite her cold demeanor, and then turned to Rosa.  
“Chief Warmaster,” she enunciated.  
“Your Royal Highness,” Rosa said, remembering her lessons from Jeraw on how to deal with elven royalty.  
“It is good that you came. Where is his Highness?”  
“King Franklin, as I am sure High Priest Kallek told you, has elected not to come.”  
Surprise shone through Queen Afya’s cold mask, before it reasserted itself and she looked, once more, bored and indifferent. Rude.  
"His Highness may, of course, elect not to come," the Queen droned, turning to examine the aperture that, presumably, led to the underground chamber.  
Echoing from the chamber came a deep voice that evoked feelings of strength and might, but was also warm and welcoming.  
It boomed forth, saying, "Welcome leaders."  
Kallek started in fear, but the huge, hulking form of Roggle slunk out of the chamber and he grinned as he saw Rosa.  
"Rosa!" he joyfully yelled, running over to her and lifting the dwarf woman as he hugged her.  
"Ow, my ribs," she coughed out.  
"Oh sorry." Roggle shamefacedly put Rosa down. Afya and Kallek looked on with identical expressions of disapproval.  
Roggle was an old friend of Rosa's. They had been assigned to the same outpost together back in their teenage years and both had later trained under Jeraw, although the old fool had preferred his own kind.  
"Warlord Roggle!" Afya demanded, "Why have you called us?"  
Roggle frowned, an unusual expression for him.  
"I think we should find the others before we discuss that, Your Royal Highness. I don't like repeating myself."  
Afya looked about to protest, but Roggle turned back to Rosa.  
"How are your new trainees? The ogres I sent shaping up?"  
Rosa smiled and launched into a description of their last full training session where one of the ogres, his name was Arnaud, had beaten all of the other initiates with one hand tied behind his back.  
"Overall an impressive display," Kallek interrupted, "But we should look for the others."  
Roggle glanced down at the hole and motioned for the dwarves and elf to follow him.  
The hole followed a straight path into the side of a hill and was dark, slimy and generally unappealing. The thing eventually ended in a wall with a hole big enough for Roggle, just about.  
"They're in here," Roggle said sheepishly. Rosa entered the hole and looked up at the chamber. It was filled with gigantic statues of the Five Gods. Gruenir, God of Dwarves with his mighty hammer. Farrek, God of Ogres wielding a club bigger than him with ease. Brynn, God of Merfolk, everywhere she touched bending to her design. Ardra, God of Elves, with daggers dripping poison. Bhoar, God of Giants, holding a redwood tree.  
Arcer, the Giant Minister and the Merfolk Empresses stood there staring at the ceiling. Up there was a beautiful work of opals and diamonds showing the five gods overthrowing the Master God, cutting off his head in the God War.  
Weiss, one of the Empresses, looked down at the noise Kallek was making. Prayer. Was that a movement from a statue Rosa saw? No it was nothing.  
Weiss spoke, but her voice was lost in Kallek's chanting a single phrase over and over. "The gods are with us."  
There was an explosion of noise and light, then blackness and silence.


	2. The Aftermath

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the fiasco that was the council, what happened to Rosa and her companions?

Rosa looked up, a ringing in her ears deafening her. The room was bright with light from a hole in the beautiful roof. Her eyes adjusting, she sat up. Kallek still stood where he had been, smiling up at the heavens.  
Everyone else was scattered across the room. Weiss and Filla, the Merfolk Empresses, were sprawled over each other, arms all a tangle. Roggle had landed next to Rosa, and was looking up bemused.  
"Heed ye villains!" came the voice of Kallek, "The gods are among us now! They shall return us to our glorious state of war! We must prepare at once!"  
Kallek had a mad glint in his eye as he climbed like a mountain goat the pile of left from the roof's destruction and leaped from it out of the chamber. Rosa looked on in confusion. The gods? Why any fool knew they had disappeared after the God War! It was then Rosa noted the absence of the five statues.  
***  
Nuin walked through the forest in a daze. He had ran when the hill had exploded. Covered in scratches from branches whipping at him as he ran, he looked around at the green of the Deepwood. Suddenly, a clearing opened up before him and he saw a small lake with a beautiful woman kneeling by the side of it.  
She had fins, like a merfolk, but they were longer and pinker. Her arms were long and shapely, like the rest of her. Truly the most beautiful woman Nuin had ever seen! Why she positively glowed!  
She turned to look at him standing there gaping at her and motioned him over with one finger. Nuin obeyed. She put her hand on his head and said,  
"My name is Brynn. Don't worry. You'll be just fine."  
Screams rang through the Deepwood.  
***  
"Roggle! I demand to know the meaning of this!" Afya screeched, her eyes glowing a dangerous violet.  
"I DON'T KNOW," boomed Roggle's baritone voice. Rosa could see on his face that he was scared but trying not to look it.  
"Then would you kindly explain what just happened?" asked Afya, her voice sticky sweet now.  
"As the esteemed warlord has already told you, Your Highness," Rosa butted in, "He doesn't know. And nor do I. But as far as I can tell The High Priest Kallek has done something, be it holy or unholy."  
Afya snorted as if she didn't believe any of that. Rosa turned so Afya couldn't see her and rolled her eyes, and then smiled at Roggle. Roggle was busily helping Weiss and Filla, neither of whom had gained consciousness since the explosion. She crossed over to him, and joined him in his efforts to revive the Empresses.  
Roggle turned and smiled at her, and she said, "Roggle I'm going to have to leave as soon as the council is over. King Franklin must know of Kallek's strange treachery."  
Roggle nodded, but continued to shake Weiss. Rosa extended her hand and stopped him. She shook her head at her friend and began singing in her sweet voice.  
The Merfolk's eyes fluttered and they began to stir. Rosa smiled at Roggle who looked on in amazement.  
"Where did you learn that trick?" he asked.  
"Oh just from one of my elven recruits. They were gifted in life magic. Music speaks to the soul within, so you can use it to great effect."  
"You'll have to teach me someday."  
Weiss sat up suddenly, startling Rosa.  
"Where is he?" she demanded.  
Roggle looked at her sympathetically and called all of the rulers together.  
"We don't know what happened, but we can assume High Priest Kallek is responsible. Rosa shall of course go back and warn King Franklin and we shall warn our own people against him. It may take a long time to find out anything that happened here but I ask you to send some of your best mages to investigate the problem."  
Arcer, the Giant Minister, nodded first of anyone, but Weiss and Filla closely followed. Afya nodded too, albeit reluctantly. It was going to be an interesting report.


End file.
